Month: July 2012

MADONNA’s pop-up shoe boutique in Selfridges has proved an unprecedented success with shoppers – becoming more popular than the temporary retail spaces of Aldo Rise, United Nude, Swedish Hasbeens and Marc by Marc Jacobs mouse pumps.

“It’s been thrilling to see our customers’ response to this project – the Truth Or Dare collection has proven to be our most commercially successful footwear pop-up this year so far,” shoes buying manager Helen Attwood. “It’s one of the most successful celebrity endorsements we’ve ever worked on.”

Selfridges launched the Truth Or Dare collection just over a week ago, with some styles already selling out. The range, which comes in a monochrome colour palette, features all from flat brogues to towering platforms and stiletto boots.
“We have already had to re-order on almost half the styles we carry,” added Attwood. “Bestselling styles have been the Panu studded court shoe and the Cedia brogue in black.”

Never mind the bedrudgers,says Carol Hunt,superstar Madge and her bum are still fabulous at 53

It was Amy Huberman’s tweet that started it. “Right,” it read. “Dressed like Madonna for the concert tonight. One boob out.”

Last week in Dublin, it wasn’t boobs Madge was showing off, but bums.

Her bum to be exact. Which, in my — admittedly rather limited — experience of female bottoms, is rather fantastic. And not, as is usually mentioned immediately after a comment admiring of Madonna’s body, just “for a 53 year old”.

Nope, Madonna’s bottom would look good on just about anyone. Well, nearly … oh, let’s not go there.

But Huberman’s fun comment — which was then followed by some rather unflattering retorts concerning Madonna’s Nipplegate episode in Istanbul — made me realise just how much flak Madge has to take purely because she’s still determined to remain as fabulous as a lot of ferocious hard work, good living and great surgery will allow. Even, God help us all, at the ripe old of age of 53.

Just previous to her MDNA tour, two other Old Goldies arrived into Dublin:
Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen: One 70 and the other 62.

The first held a rather demure sit-down event in the O2 with a suitably well behaved audience (if reports are to be believed), the second a slightly more raucous gig in the RDS but pretty much serving the same demographic.

Then we had Madonna; younger than both boyos; fitter, fabulously dressed with sexy dancers and routines that would exhaust an Olympic triathlon athlete; still setting trends and creating controversies (the swastika in the Marine Le Pen video) and what do the begrudgers say this time around?

She’s too old.
Too old for what?

For keeping breasts inside her cone bra? Her pert bum hidden under her fishnets? Her 53-year-old legs in something a little more demure than the Super Shorts she wears with thigh-high boots?

Of course, deriding Madonna is nothing new. She’s always been the smartest, hardest working, toughest b**ch on the block. That has intimidated a whole swathe of people who then try to disguise their misogyny/envy/fear/horror as snobbish disdain.

On and on she goes, indestructible; immune and indifferent to the complaints of those who aren’t fit to tweak her bra strap. And now they’re getting at her for growing older. Jesus wept; since when has aging become such a crime?

Or is it because, in Madonna’s case it’s the fact that at 53 she looks fantastic and can still put the likes of imitator Lady Gaga in the shade? Doesn’t she know that older women are worth less than younger ones? (The opposite rule with men).
That they’re supposed to shut up?

Madonna puts on a show to beat all rivals: she can cartwheel, backflip and still make her twenty-something backing dancers look like they’re struggling to keep up with her. I’d love to see the likes of Paul Simon or Bruce Springsteen try that.

Madonna’s intimate performance at the Olympia club in Paris last Thursday (July 26) — planned as a peace-making show after she insulted political figure Marine Le Pen during an earlier Paris performance — drew boos and “refund!” cries when the pop superstar left the stage after just 45 minutes. But in a new statement on her web site, Madonna called the surprise show “a magical moment,” and argued that only a handful of attendees were “pretending” to be upset with the performance.

“Playing the Olympia was a magical moment for me and it was real treat to do this special show for my fans and be so close to them,” reads the statement. “Unfortunately at the end of the show — after I left the stage — a few thugs who were not my fans rushed the stage and started throwing plastic bottles pretending to be angry fans. The press reports have focused on this and not the joyous aspect of the evening. But nothing can take away or ruin this very special evening for me and my fans. When I looked out in the audience, everyone I saw had a smile on their face. I look forward to having this wonderful experience again.”

Madonna also addressed the Olympia club incident during a pause at her performance in Vienna on Sunday night. “Wherever I go, whatever kind of show I do, be it at a stadium, a sports arena, or a little tiny nightclub in Paris, I always do it with my complete heart and soul” she told the crowd.

The Olympia show was streamed live on YouTube, and by Friday morning the channel disabled comments on the video, which had garnered more “dislike’s” than “like’s.” Fan-shot videos from after the performance show a stage littered with plastic bottles and other paraphernalia.

The extra stop on Madonna’s world tour supporting her new album, MDNA, was never supposed to be a full show, Madge spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg told The Hollywood Reporter. Rosenberg said that the event was “planned as a heartfelt thank you to France… And by the way, she put on a fabulous show which was streamed for millions of fans around the world.”

Madonna’s MDNA Tour continues to post big numbers, as the trek’s gross rises to an overall $79.6 million from 22 reported shows. On the most recent Hot Tours chart, she ranks No. 1 with ticket sales totals reported from four sold out concerts during her tour through European markets this summer. Her first MDNA Tour appearance in France was on July 14 at the Stade De France in Paris with 62,195 fans in attendance. The $7.1 million (US$) gross at the national stadium of France is the largest single-show ticket sales total reported from the tour so far. Following the Paris concert, the tour crossed the channel for its first date in the U.K., a performance at London’s Hyde Park. With a crowd topping 54,000, the concert on July 17 grossed £4.2 million ($6.7 million US$) and also featured LMFAO in a supporting slot. Concerts followed at Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena on July 19 and Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland on July 21.

RankArtist/Event
Total Gross
Show Dates
Show Venue/City (Shows/Sellouts)
Total Attendance (Capacity)

Here some pictures that show the (huge ) work behind each individual date of the mdna tour. You can see the local control room, the tent for the crew with the adjoining kitchen, the assembly steps of the stage and the independent generators that are used during the show.

Madonna distraught afterwards with a dark and loud techno show in Wien yesterday night.

Madonna was on Sunday evening in Vienna with her MDNA show, concert less than roller-coaster ride to techno beats. The audience was pleased with pop-rays of hope like “Like A Prayer” performed with gospel choir.

Thhe spectacle in the Oval Prater was a fascinating over-stimulation of undulating bass, where the production was important than the live music. Religious motives merged with splatter effects (great as brutally: “Gang Bang”), battle cries (“I Do not Give A *”) with sexual fantasies (“The Erotic Candy Shop”) and Basque folklore (“Open Your Heart “).

Packed political criticism (including Le Pen’s controversial video), sadomasochism, divorce trauma with Dear Haber carnage and cheerleading in a round Gehopse show – that was pure pop. Madonna showed up in underwear (and breathed it, “Like A Virgin” with piano accompaniment in waltz time), in a catsuit, with Swarovski glitter and furious: The people who had booed for three days in Paris were “no fans” have been she announced excitedly.